Late last week I received a desperate email from a mother about how police in Texarkana had so badly brutalized her teenage son that he was now permanently blind in one eye. It took us a few days to understand the case, but this morning I wanna give you an update on the brutal assault of 17 year old Daquan Huey.
He’s a wonderful kid – and you can see all of his pictures and more about his story on all of my social media accounts. Just about 10 days ago he was literally breaking up a fight between two groups of his own friends when police arrived on the scene like it was a war zone. Mind you, Daquan was being a peacemaker and was attempting to break up the fight and diffuse the tensions – when suddenly an officer grabs him from behind and then fires a projectile can of pepper spray right at DaQuan’s face.
Let me be clear. He did not spray DaQuan with pepper spray – the officer had a projectile gun that shot out cans of pepper spray, and at close range he shot the can right at DaQuan’s face. And if you’ve seen the pictures, you know the damage it caused.
The can shattered bones in DaQuan’s face, and so badly damaged his left eye that doctors have now determined that he will never see out of this eye again.
And I ask the question that we’ve asked so many times before this – how is it that 17 year old DaQuan Huey ends up with brutal life altering injuries, bones shattered in his face, permanently blind in one of his eyes, yet white mass murderers are routinely arrested by police without a single scratch? How is it that DaQuan is now blind, but white folk who actually shoot and kill police officers or school kids or churchgoers are arrested peacefully – without incident?
And what happened to DaQuan Huey is not the exception, but the rule. On Tuesday, authorities in Texas announced that they are not going to charge the officer who shot and killed military veteran EJ Bradford, Jr. at the Birmingham area mall on Black Friday. Bradford was literally serving as a hero, shepherding people out of the mall, after an actual shooting went down, and a mall cop ended up shooting and killing EJ, then reporting to the world that he bravely killed the mall shooter.
In the meantime, the mall shooter got away, and fled the state, all while they plastered EJ’s face all over TV as the shooter. In spite of ample evidence that EJ was helping patrons at the mall, the State of Alabama is refusing to press any charges – sparking protests the past few days in Alabama.
I’ll close this morning with an important update on Crystal Mason. You may have seen her face or heard her story before. Crystal is a wonderful woman and a great mother to her children. After she was served her time and was released from prison several years ago, she showed up to vote in the 2016. She used her own ID, her own name, showed up at her own polling location, and was told by poll workers that it was fine for her to vote there.
Months later, she learned from the State of Texas that she was being charged with voter fraud, and she was shocked – believing it to be a mistake. She knew good and well that she had not committed voter fraud.
But unbeknownst to Crystal Mason, the State of Texas had stripped her of her right to vote, and even though she had been released from prison, they had not restored her voting rights, and so the Tarrant County District Attorney, right outside of Dallas, had her arrested and charged with voter fraud. She fought the charges, but was convicted, and, at this very moment is back in prison. It’s an abomination.
And just this week Crystal Mason was eligible to be transferred out of the maximum security prison to a safer residential facility, but Tarrant County issued another warrant for her arrest, something I’ve literally never seen or heard of in my life. The warrant was for improper sewage disposal. And they are claiming the day before Crystal was arrested on voter fraud, that she missed a legal required date for sewage disposal at her home and is now being charged with a crime over it.
Thankfully, I just received news yesterday, after the local NAACP and local attorneys fought back against this bogus charge, that it has now been dropped, and Crystal Mason is now eligible to be transferred to a new residential facility, but here’s the thing – she should be home with her family right now. And what we are seeing all over this country is that when men and women serve their time, this nation is doing everything it can to keep them jammed up, taking away their right to vote, making it almost impossible for them to work, get student loans, and so much else.
I’ve gotta run, but I’ll keep you posted on all of these cases and more as I get updates.
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Shaun King: Daquan Huey Was Trying To Break Up A Fight, Now He’s Blind was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
